Your Right to Know

In the rugged realm of Ohio politics, it’s wise to remember that what goes around comes
around.

For months, the Ohio Democratic Party has pounded Ohio GOP Chairman Matt Borges for his unpaid
tax debts to the IRS, even assigning him a Twitter hashtag — #TaxCheat.

Now, it turns out that the Democrats’ candidate for lieutenant governor, Sen. Eric Kearney of
Cincinnati, not only owes the IRS thousands in back taxes, but also has a big tax debt to the
state.

With the two high-profile partisan leaders sharing a common tax problem, neither party likely
will be able to capitalize on the issue in next year’s race for governor without appearing
hypocritical, said Mary Anne Sharkey, a political consultant who has advised Democrats and
Republicans.

“There’s always a danger in pounding on an issue like that because it’s bound to crop up in your
own party,” she said. “I often remind people that if you go out and make this charge, it can come
back to haunt you.”

When Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald, the likely Democratic candidate for governor,
selected Kearney as his running mate on Wednesday, he was aware that Kearney owed thousands of
dollars in back taxes tied to Sesh Communications, the company he owns with his wife that operates
the
Cincinnati Herald, an African-American weekly newspaper. Kearney and his wife, Jan Michele
Kearney, are paying $1,000 a month to the IRS on an $84,000 tax debt.

But a
Dispatch review of records at the Hamilton County recorder’s office shows the company also
owes the state more than $85,000 in unpaid taxes.

In an interview yesterday, Kearney said both debts are related to an incident in which one of
the Kearneys’ original partners stole from him and his wife. He said Sesh Communications is the
company they started to keep publishing the newspaper, and some of the taxes owed the state were
being charged to the old company.

Kearney said they are paying the state while disputing what is owed.

“I disclosed everything to the FitzGerald campaign,” said Kearney, who also listed the state
debt by name, not amount, on his financial-disclosure forms with the state.

Borges also has been forthright about his tax problems, acknowledging yesterday that he still
owes about $83,000 to the IRS and that he has four years to pay off the debt.

But Democrats have hounded Borges relentlessly about the unpaid taxes, repeatedly labeling him a
“tax cheat” and using various mediums to publicly assail him.

On Karen Kasler’s public-television show,
The State of Ohio, on Oct. 4, Ohio Democratic Party Chairman Chris Redfern told Borges he
had “no credibility to discuss taxes both personally and professionally with the tax liens you
face.” Redfern previously had called Borges a “deadbeat” on Twitter.

Jerid Kurtz, the state Democratic Party’s communications director, has launched more than 120
tweets against Borges, most labeled #TaxCheat.

On Kasler’s show, Kurtz tweeted from offstage a photo of a sign, #TaxCheat, with Borges on the
set in the background. On Nov. 7, Kurtz tweeted: “Things @ChairmanBorges has never said: ‘I’m
thinking about investing my tax refund.’ #TaxCheat.” Kurtz regularly tweets “#TaxLienWatch” updates
on Borges’ debt.

Kurtz justified the tweets by saying “Borges’ situation is entirely unique,” adding: “Plenty of
small-business owners run into unexpected financial difficulties, but Borges’ problems are of his
own making.”

Borges said he has refrained from responding to the Twitter attacks, adding, “It means
absolutely nothing what those losers say about me.” He said the state GOP has no plans to attack
Kearney for his tax problems unless it finds he has not been honest about them.

“We won’t say the same things about Eric Kearney because we aren’t of that ilk,” Borges said. “
Eric Kearney is not the issue in the campaign.”